I recently read a marathi book named - "Melghatavaril Mohar" on the lives of Dr. Ravindra Kolhe and Dr. Smita Kolhe. It has been written by Mrunalini Chitale. I was totally engrossed with reading the book and felt very proud of Dr. Ravindra and Smita Kolhe.They have made tribal upliftment the motto of their life. When Dr Ravindra Kolhe started nursing the poor tribals Melghat-- Maharashtra’s most malnourished area-- in 1989 the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) there was 200 per 1,000 infants. Now, it has come down to 60. His fee is just Rs 2 for the first consultation and Rs 1 for the second. Not only medical services, but they have touched upon each and every aspect of the villagers' lives, thus forming a strong mutual trust amongst them. They also faced many problems, but they converted these challenges into opportunities.It certainly needs a lot of courage to take such kind of decision in early ages and more important to do the work with persistence and self-confidence. I really appreciate the work of Dr. Ravindra and Smita Kolhe. Everyone must read this great book and try our best to contribute our share to such noble souls.!

Few days ago, I read a Marathi book written by Achyut Godbole - 'Zapoorza' - A brief introduction to English/Western Literature by terms of walking us through lives of greatest English writers and their literature summary.There are two parts of the book, out of which I read part 1. This book very nicely covers the lives of greatest English writers in brief and interesting stories behind the birth of greatest novels /dramas/ poems.This book includes world class writers such as William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Henrik Ibsen, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Franz Kafka, Ernest Hemingway,Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.The 2nd part of the book includes some more famous writers such as Honoré de Balzac,Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Miller, Thomas Hardy, etc. to name a few. For a person who wants to touch upon the wide variety of the English/western literature, these books are a really good choice. I am planning to read the 2nd part of this book in near future.Thank you to Achyut Godbole for this excellent work !

Sar Pass is a moderately challenging trek in the Parvati Valley of Himachal Pradesh. Situated at an altitude of 14000 ft, it can be considered as a great introduction to high altitude trekking. It is organised by YHAI every year.I participated in this trek @ May 2013 and I must sincerely admit that it was truely an amzing experience. Sharing some wondeful snaps ...Enjoy Trekking ! :-)

I did a Sarpass trek in May 2013 with YHAI (Youth Hostels Association of India). It was an awesome experience as it was my very first Himalayan Trekking expedition. Enjoyed a lot !The Sar Pass is in Parvati Valley of Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, a state of India.Sar, in local dialect, means a lake. While trekking, across the path from Tila Lotni to Biskeri Ridge, one has to pass by a small, normally frozen lake (Sar) and hence the name Sar Pass Trek.Sharing some snaps of beautiful flowers that I captured ...Happy Nature !

Read some good books near the end of year 2013 - Musafir - An autobiography of Shri Achyut Godbole - by Achyut GodboleArthaat - History of Finance, its principles and short biographies of Finance Industry Legends. - by Achyut GodboleGoshtich Goshti - by Shankar PatilPaulvata - by Shankar PatilFelt very good that I managed to read these books in short span of time ! Happy reading and welcome new year 2014 !May God shower me with number of good books in year 2014 ! :-)

I recently purchased some Marathi books republished by Samanvay Prakashan, Ajab distributers. They have launched a very nice scheme - buy any book ranging from Rs. 100 to Rs. 600 for only Rs. 50. The purpose is to make some good old books available once again to the readers. Any one can avail this scheme till 28th February 2013.The two books among the others that I purchased are written by Narayan Dharap :- Dasta- ToldhadExcellent reads! I liked the story - 'Yakshaprashna' from 'Toldhad' book the most! If you have some interest in horror genre, 4th dimension, parallel world, scientific fictions; you will love reading his books. Most of his stories show a battle between good and evil, with victory of good at the end!More information on Narayan Dharap and his books - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayan_DharapEnjoy reading !

After quite a long period, I got a chance to read some good marathi books.Rasikaho - P.L.DeshpandeNakoshi - Madhavi DesaiAshi ghara... ashi manasa - Mangala GodbolePlanning to read some more in coming weekends:-)

I came across a very nice story a couple of days ago. Sharing the same.Baby giraffes never go to a business school. But they learn a very important management lesson early in life. A lesson that all of us would do well to remember.The birth of a baby giraffe is quite an earth-shaking event. The baby falls from its mother’s womb, some eight feet above the ground. It shrivels up and lies still, too weak to move.The mother giraffe lovingly lowers her neck to kiss the baby giraffe. And then something incredible happens. She lifts her long leg and kicks the baby giraffe, sending it flying up in the air and tumbling down on the ground.As the baby lies curled up, the mother kicks the baby again and again. Until the baby giraffe, still trembling and tired, pushes its limbs and for the first time learns to stand on its feet. Happy to see the baby standing on its own feet, the mother giraffe comes over and gives it yet another kick. The baby giraffe falls one more time, but now quickly recovers and stands up.Mama Giraffe is delighted. She knows that her baby has learnt an important lesson: "Never mind how hard you fall, always remember to pick yourself up and get back on your feet."Why does the mother giraffe do this? She knows that lions and leopards love giraffe meat. So unless the baby giraffe quickly learns to stand and run with the pack – it will have no chance of survival.Most of us though are not quite as lucky as baby giraffes. No one teaches us to stand up every time we fall. When we fail, when we are down, we just give up.No one kicks us out of our comfort zone to remind us that to survive and succeed, we need to learn to get back on our feet.If you study the lives of successful people though, you will see a recurring pattern. Were they always successful in all they did? No.Did success come to them quick and easy? No, You will find that the common streak running through their lives is their ability to stand up every time they fall. The ability of the baby giraffe!The road to success is never an easy one. There are several obstacles, and you are bound to fall sooner or later. You will hit a road block, you will taste failure. But success lies in being able to get up every time you fall.Enjoy reading ! :-)

A few months back, I finally cancelled my Tata Photon Plus / Tata Docomo subscription due to very low speeds that I consistently faced. If you read their advertise on http://www.tataphoton.com, it says :-Tata Photon Plus is a High Speed Internet Access Service (HSIA) in the form of a USB Modem offered by Tata Teleservices Ltd. The speeds offered are Up to 3.1 Mbps (Downlink) Up to 1.8 Mbps (Uplink)Allured by the high speed numbers, I subscribed to their USB Modem Tata Photon Plus postpaid plan and since then my journey onto the internet had been drastically slow. The speeds were so pathetic (0.10 Mbps to 0.25 Mbps Downlink) that opening any page during any time of the day would take 30-90 secs. Watching videos with this speed was a nightmare. On complaint, one of the Tata Indicom engineers visited my home and checked my network settings, machine configuration and found those to be up to the mark. Then he told that there might be a network issue with Malad West tower and they were getting many complaints regarding the speed/connectivity. Finally I got a call which stated that we could not resolve this issue unless and until we launch a new site (may be a new tower nearby) in the area.My concern was why was then issued a connection if it was not going to serve at least half of the advertised speed and why should I pay their highly charged postpaid bills. I continuously followed up with the customer care team and was really frustrated with the replies that I received. Here are some of the replies :---------------------We would like to inform you that we have verified your screen shot and found that you are getting average speed of 256kbps and there is no speed issue.Please be informed that if you are facing slow speed issue which is less than the average speed i.e.256kbps kindly revert us back which will help us for further proceedings. --------------------We would like to inform you that Photon Plus connection provides speed up to 3.1 Mbps. However, the actual connection & browsing speed depends on a variety of factor such as,1. Number of simultaneous Photon Plus users in your area,2. Time of the day internet is accessed3. Webpage accessed4. Speed of processor5. Virus & Malware presence in the back ground6. Size of RAMThus, in most real-world situations, you can expect average speeds of 256-600 Kbps (Kilo bits per Second)”FYI - my machine configuration was one of the best - 6 GB RAM, Intel i5 Dual Core 2.4 GHz, 64-bit OS--------------------We request you to bear with us interim and you will be duly intimated about the resolution for newly site plan.--------------------I wish I could have posted the entire email chain, but I think the above replies are sufficient to judge their service and advertisement.So please DO NOT trust their Advertising speeds. You have every right to ask them questions! Verify the actual upload and download speeds with http://speedtest.net/ -> Click 'Begin Test'

A couple of weeks back, a small team (which organizes some social responsibility activities) from our company visited Asmita Center for Handicapped. I along with my wife also joined the group. Asmita is a NGO based in Mumbai. It runs many projects, amongst which, runs a small vocational training center for physically challenged people in Ashokvan, Borivali (West), Mumbai. Their motto ‘Hum bhi kisi se kam nahi’ is not just on paper, but we could see that motto being carved out into the hearts of many students undergoing various kind of trainings at the institute. The center mainly targets handicapped people who are confined to their homes due to their disablilties and lack of self confidence. Asmita volunteers go to the society (which targets mainly slums) looking for such students and persuading their parents to send them to the center. Recently they have started involving college social project teams to reach out to physically challenged people in the society. Each batch consists of about 15-20 students who are trained for about 2 years. The main aim is to build self confidence within these students so that they have the confidence to face the society and the required skills to earn a livelihood for themselves. Up till now the trust has helped more than 1000 handicapped people (called as 'AmrutPutra' and 'AmrutKanya' ) in the center.The activities in the center include sewing, wood/board panel cutting and painting, making greeting cards, making paper plates, stitching (bags, aprons, mats, etc), agarbattis, other handicrafts used by KG schools, teaching computer basics, etc. At the end of their training period, the students are provided with machinery and equipment to enable them to earn a sustainable living.Sudha Tai Wagh has been running this center for almost 2 decades on a voluntary basis. Hats off to her dedication! We have certainly a lot to learn from such kind of people. When we were talking to her regarding various aspects/challenges about training the handicapped people, I remembered this ultimate quote by Mark Twain - "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see". The proof was right in front of us! :-) The rest of the volunteers consist of teachers (most of whom are students who have passed out in earlier batches), retired people, some young students, helpers and a bus driver. The bus, donated to the trust, picks up the students from their homes to the center and drops them back at their homes. The center also employs a physio to provide medical help to the students. On our visit, we met with the students, the trainers, the founder member and other volunteers who had decided to spend at least a part of their time supporting the cause – each had a special experience to share and the visit turned out to be a beautiful interaction for all of us there. We watched videos of the Asmita’s performing team – it’s a team of specially gifted artists who can play musical instruments with their feet, dance on a single leg, sing and entertain like never before! The talent and more importantly the enthusiasm exuberated in these performances is hard to express in words.They show cased their products and one would never believe that these students could have made them! Some of us tried our hand at rolling the agarbatti – and none could do it as perfectly as Amol - Amol could not bend his arms like most of us can, and crawls on his knees.Each one of us carried back a lot with us - Asmita's people, its humility, its simplicity, its dedication and much more! They definitely need a financial support, but more than that they need volunteers (part time/ full time) to help in their cause. We can definitely try to make a small difference in the lives of physically challenged people! I am wrong saying this ... It is actually going to change our lives for sure! Let's make them friends forever ...I would end this post with a very nice quote by Janet Barnes -"I have not been handicapped by my condition. I am physically challenged and differently able."

Another one day bike trek organized by Abhijeet ! This time he planned a trek to Dhak and we joined him to explore the nature trails. Dhak is considered to be one of the most thrilling and challenging treks in Karjat region. We were also very excited for this adventure. It was around 290 Km return journey. (Thane - Lonavala - Kamshet - Kundeshwar and back). We wanted to reach to the narrow ridge between the 'Kalakrai' cliff and the mountain, from where one can climb up to the Bahiri caves. However, we faced very heavy rains and dense fog. We got completely lost .... Since we wanted to come back on same day, we finally decided to return back. It was really difficult to trace the return path in such a dense fog ... but finally we managed it :-) Though we could not complete our trek, we enjoyed the waterfalls, Kundali river, the dense forest as well as fog and the rain bullets ! And needless to say we enjoyed being lost in Nature ! ... Sharing few snaps ...

Monsoon has just started in Maharashtra and we could not hold ourselves to experience the green and lively nature in rains. On 7th July, Abhijit and Rajesh planned a one day bike trek to Harihar fort near Nasik. It was around 280 Km of round journey from Mumbai to Harihar and back. The road that we took was Thane -> Kasara -> Khodale -> Nirgudpada. The base village of Harihar fort is Nirgudpada. It was my first long journey bike experience and I loved it !Harihar (approx. 3,676 ft) forms a part of the Trimbak range in Nasik region. There are total 117 steps carved beautifully in the rock patch and you really feel like flying on the wings of the wind when there is a very windy and rainy weather while climbing up the steps. We enjoyed the trek very much! Sharing some snaps...

Should I call this a mere coincidence? A couple of weeks back, my wife and I attended our friend's marriage (Love marriage to be specific). My friend is a Maharashtrian and the bride (who is also my friend) is a Kannadian South Indian. Needless to say the match that the God made is perfect! Both liked each other, fell in love with each other and then finally decided to get married :-) Everyone enjoyed the wedding ceremony. In the evening, we went to our another friend staying nearby where I located a book - 'Two States - the story of my marriage' by Chetan Bhagat. I got interested into the book by reading this - "Love marriages around the world are simple! Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married. In India, there are a few more steps:-Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl.Girl's family has to love boy's family. Boy's family has to love girl's family.Girl and boy still love each other. They get married."Was this a coincidence that my eyes caught only this book among the other books resting on the bookshelf ? I had just attended a love marriage of my friends who belong to two different states in India. I tried to imagine the conversations/discussions that might have happened between the two families - two communities when my friends had told their decision to them. But I know imagining about a battle is always easy than actually fighting it! So kudos to my friends for winning it ! :-) I borrowed the book from my friend and was totally engrossed with reading the book after that! A story about two friends - Punjabi and Tamilian, deeply in love and want to get married, not by hurting their parents' feelings, but with a smile on both parents' faces instead! An excellent book which touches your heart ! What I most liked is the approach the couple took to convince their families instead of fighting and rebelling. Chetan has beautifully narrated the story and you won't feel keeping the book down until it is completely finished. Hats off to you Chetan ! I loved the book ! Would like to end this post by providing a part of the speech(message) from the book that the girl's father gave during the wedding ceremony. We should carve this message on our heart :-"So why do parents object to cross community/culture marriage? It is not only about another community. It is the fact that your daughter has found a boy for herself. We as parents feel disobeyed, left out and disappointed. We bring our children up from babies to adults, how can they ignore us like this? All our frustration comes out in anger. But we forget that this has happened because your child had love to give to someone in this world. Is that such a bad thing? Where did the child learn to love? From us, after all, the person they loved first is you.Actually, the choice is simple. When your child decides to love a new person, you can either see it as a chance to hate some people - the person they choose and their families. Which is what we did for a while. However, you can also see it as a chance to love some more people. And since when did loving more people become a bad thing?Yes, the Tamilian in me is a little disappointed. But the Indian in me is quite happy. And more than anything, the human being in me is happy. After all, we have decided to use this opportunity to create more loved ones for ourselves!"Enjoy reading!

I finally read the book - Tuesdays with Morrie (by Mitch Albom) which I decided to read after I watched the wonderful drama Wah! Guru last month. The drama is based on this book. The thoughts about life and death created such an interest in my mind that I finished reading the book in a single day. I actually got into it! Good utilization of my Saturday time! :-)Sharing some beautiful thoughts/aphorisms from this book :-"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.""Everyone knows they are going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did,we would do things differently.""To know you are going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time. That way you can actually be more involved in your life while you are living.""The truth is once you learn how to die,you learn how to live.""At seventy eight, he was giving as an adult and taking as a child.""I embrace aging. As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at 22, you'd always be as ignorant as you were at 22. Aging is not just decay. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you are going to die, it's also the positive that you understand you are going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.""If you are trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at you anyhow. And if you are trying to show off for people at bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.""When you are in bed,you are dead.""People are only mean when they are threatened. And that's what our culture does. That's what our economy does. Even people who have jobs in our economy are threatened, because they worry about losing them. And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself.You start making money a god. It is all part of this culture.""Death ends a life, not a relationship."And will end this post by this beautiful moral story :-The story is about a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. It's enjoying the wind and the fresh air until it notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the store."My God, this is terrible", the wave says."Look what's going to happen to me!" Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to the wave, "Why do you look so sad?"The first wave says,"You don't understand! We are all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?"The second wave says,"No, you don't understand. You are not a wave, you are part of the ocean!" Enjoy reading !

I decided to separate out the technical stuff from this blog to another blog. So I have now 3 blogs :-1) About Nature, Literature, Life :-http://niranjansarade.blogspot.com2) Technical Stuff :-http://niranjansarade.tumblr.com/Have recently shared the slides for my talk @RubyConfIndia 2012 in the above blog.3) My poem collection :-http://dhundamanasi.wordpress.com/Enjoy reading !

Recently I read a Marathi translated version of a novel called 'Aavarana(2007)'. The book has been originally written in Kannada by the bestselling novelist Professor S.L.Bhyrappa and translated in Marathi by Uma Kulkarni. The novel portrays the relationship between Hinduism and Islam - in the past and in the present, with two stories going on a parallel track.The term 'Aavarana' is used in Vedantic literature to denote that aspect of nescience (Avidya) that obscures all things. It is the 'Avidya' that hides the real truth behind its covers. Prof. SL Bhyrappa chose the same name to his novel because he wanted to highlight the current so called Secular and Social faces in India who are trying to hide the real truth with the help of political support. The book is very informative as the author has actually referred to many books himself before writing this novel. This list can be found at the end of the book nicely included as a part of the story. The incidents that he has narrated by means of a story are based on these references. The author has made very clear that the relationships between communities should be based on a strong foundation of truth rather than systemic misinformation. To be frank, today's education about the Indian history lacks the truth.One should definitely read this book and have an introspection about what we have been taught since childhood and what is the actual truth. Certainly, no one should feel against Islam or any other religion, that is not the book's intent as clearly stated by the author. The intent is to understand that no relationship can stand successful if it is not based on a strong foundation of truth. Because truth will never die!

Last Sunday, I watched an excellent Marathi drama called 'Wah! Guru'. My favorite actor Dilip Prabhawalkar performed excellent in casting the character of Professor Sapre. The drama is based on Mitch Albom's best-selling novel 'Tuesdays with Morrie - an old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson'. It is a story of courage and optimism of Professor Sapre who is diagnosed with the terminal illness of Motor Neuron Disease (MND), a very rare disease due to which the patient loses his muscular control and finally succumbs to it. But Prof. Sapre asks himself - Do I wither up, or do I make the best of my time left?He makes Death as his final project. Since everyone is going to die, his death can be taught in personal class, that's what he thinks. He starts teaching the bridge between life and death to one of his students by narrating small inspirational stories. And the student actually benefits from his teachings, his positive attitude.I liked this dialog - 'When you're in bed, you're dead!'And also this conversation between the student and the professor:-Student : "Why should we care or think about death now as it approaches towards end of our life ?" Professor : "My thinking is opposite. The life ends when death approaches us. And hence we need to think of Death every day."The ebook is available @TuesdaysWithMorrieSo, please watch this wonderful drama or read the book if you haven't already ! Needless to say that my next plan is to read this book ! :-)

Textmate is the most popular editor tool available exclusively only for Mac OS. Developers love it due to its simplicity, lightweightness and excellent feature set availability. While working on Ubuntu (11.10 64-bit), we have the default gedit editor available which is also very good. However, if we want to have some Textmate like features with gedit, we can follow these simple steps to make gedit look like Textmate:-(1) Installing extra gedit plugins :-$ sudo apt-get install gedit-plugins(2) Installing Textmate 'Monaco' fontDownload from http://www.gringod.com/wp-upload/software/Fonts/Monaco_Linux.ttf and execute below commands:(3) Installing syntax color scheme darkmate.xmlDownload the darkmate.xml file from http://grigio.org/files/darkmate.xmlFrom gedit, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Font & Colors. Then click Add button and locate the download file(darkmate.xml). Also select the Monaco font.(4) Activating installed plugins from gedit -> Edit -> Preferences -> PluginsFrom this pane,we can enable following plugins as per our requirements :--Bracket Completion-Code Comment-File Browser Panel-Snippets-Word Completion, etc.With these settings, your gedit now looks like Textmate :- If you want to avoid the above steps, then we have also another option called Gmate. GMate is a collection of plugins, themes/styles and other improvements to get TextMate-like features in Gedit. The package will add some themes and plugins you can enable/disable from the Gedit preferences. To install GMate in Ubuntu, use the following commands:In the upcoming posts, we will also try some other text editors available for Linux Ubuntu.

We had a requirement of load/performance testing in one of my earlier projects. Instead of using commercial and expensive Silk performer, we gave a try to open source Apache JMeter and it worked really well for the purpose that we were looking for.The Apache JMeter is an open source software, a 100% pure Java application designed to load test functional behavior and measure performance.There is an excellent step by step guide available @JMeter proxy Step-by-step for how to record tests with JMeter. The guide explains the steps for creating a test plan with JMeter's proxy. The proxy records the requests sent to the server.There are different kind of Listeners available for viewing load test results like Aggregate Report, Aggregate Graph, Summary Report, View Results Tree, Monitor Results, etc. Sharing one sample output of Aggregate Report :-While setting up the load tests, we also need to take care of some config elements for more accurate results like HTTP Cookie Manager, HTTP Authorization Manager,HTTP Cache Manager, HTTP Request Defaults,HTTP Header Manager, etc. I could not go through all the elements of test plan in depth due to time constraint, but one can go through these documentation links for stepping into more technical details :-- JMeter User Manual - Elements of a Test Plan- Component Reference

I wanted to give a try on my Windows 7 system to create and run Virtual Machine with Ubuntu OS. As my colleague Manohar rightly pointed out the reason @Ruby on Rails Development Platform in Enterprise behind this, I followed the instructions to install VMWare and Ubuntu on my Windows 7 laptop.A. Download and Install VMWare Player which is free for personal non-commercial use. B. Download 64-bit ISO of Ubuntu.C. Create a New Virtual Machine for Ubuntu 64-bit using VMware Player. The steps are simple. It takes default 512 MB of RAM but I allocated 2 GB of RAM. It took me around 1 and half hour to install all the necessary files for ubuntu. So have a patience!My host system configuration :-Processor: Intel Core Dual i5 CPU, RAM: 6GB, 64-bit Operating System, Windows 7 Home PremiumSome issues that I faced and the corresponding resolution :-(1) With Ubuntu 32-bit(recommended) ISO file download, the VMWare could not identify the 64-bit Ubuntu OS. So I downloaded 64-bit ISO file for Ubuntu 11.10 verison. With this file, the VMWare was able to detect 64-bit Ubuntu OS correctly.(2) When I went ahead with the installation, I got 2 warnings/errors :-To run virtualization software and virtual machines, hardware virtualization technology should be enabled. I enabled Virtualization Technology (VT) in motherboard BIOS settings which is disabled by default and then restarted my machine. This resolved my issue and Ubuntu(64-bit) was then successfully installed on my VM.I followed the steps mentioned @Ubuntu, Ruby, RVM, Rails, and You to install RVM, Ruby 1.9.3, Rails 3.1.3 and mysql2. The steps are self explanatory and straight forward to follow. Thanks to Ryan Bigg for this !Now I am ready to try out some ruby/rails development on Ubuntu @ my home pc :-)

Terrorist attack is not new to Mumbai, rather I should say to India. After the Mumbai terrorist attack in year 2008 in which around 200 people were openly killed by Pakistani terrorists, the security measure concern was again raised as usual as it has been for every such terrorist attack in past. Security was again made tight in every government as well as private organizations, public places, etc.However, this Security check Fever unfortunately did not last for long. We Mumbaikars tend to forget things fast as we are so called very busy people tied to the running clock. Thousands of candles were lighted protesting the so called Coward Terrorist Act and our security chain started to become weak once again. The organization that I work in is India's one of the largest business process outsourcing service organizations. My organization was no exception to this temporary security fever. Initially, the security was made very tight. But since past couple of years, what I have observed is :-1) Security guards most of the times only pat on the bag/sack to check whether a person is carrying any weighted thing.2) They just ask people whether you are carrying any laptops/media or not.3) In one of the office buildings there is no metal detector entrance gate or even no metal detector equipments.4) The bag is usually not opened properly and checked. 5) The I-card at the very entrance is usually not verified with the person's face carrying the I-card.6) The decklids of cars are only opened and checked. Security guards don't realize that the things can be carried away or brought inside from inside the car as well. From the bags inside the car or from under the seats for example.7) Under Car Inspection mirrors are rarely used.8) Person's shirt/trousers pockets are never checked at all.I do not want to add more items to this list. The issue is when are we going to learn from History ? After all, the attacker has no different face to identify.I would not be surprised if any terrorist attack strikes again in any part of Mumbai. And the only responsible people for letting this attack successful would be we, ourselves. So please be cautious and tighten our security measures !Vande Mataram !

Sharing Last Speech by Nathuram Godse :-JANUARY 30th, 1949 - The Mahatma was assassinated by a man called Naturam Godse. After he shot him, instead of running away, he stood his ground and surrounded. He said, "No one should think that Gandhi was killed by a madman"One of the best speeches of All time, which is compared to Socrates's speech in his trial. The Judge was astonished by his speech and commented that if India had followed the Jury system of giving judgments, Godse would have been adjudicated as "Not Guilty" by the Jury, cause after the speech, the whole audience was in tears.This is the speech given by Nathuram Godse in the court in his last trial for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi."Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession. I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other.I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Nairoji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and' Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done.All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well being of all India, one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well.Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji's influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence, which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day. In fact, honour, duty and love of one's own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita. [In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action.In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India. It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history's towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical, as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen forever for the freedom they brought to them.The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very well in South Africa to uphold the rights and well being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the Judge of everyone and everything; he was the master brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster and political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma's infallibility. 'A Satyagrahi can never fail' was his formula for declaring his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is.Thus, the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible. Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with, as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after disaster.Gandhi's pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India. It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language. In the beginning of his career in India, Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani. Everybody in India knows that there is no language called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect; it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and crossbreed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma's sophistry could make it popular. But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India. His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus.From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi's infatuation for them. Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork.The Congress, which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism, secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947. Lord Mountbatten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls 'freedom' and 'peaceful transfer of power'. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called 'freedom won by them with sacrifice' - whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country - which we consider a deity of worship - my mind was filled with direful anger.One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto death related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims in Pakistan, there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi.Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty inasmuch as he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power and his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled before Jinnah's iron will and proved to be powerless.Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan. People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building. After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds of Birla House.I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots.I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy, which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi. I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preachings and deeds are at times at variances with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi's persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims.I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof some day in future."

I recently read one Marathi book - 'Steve Jobs:Ek Zapatlela Tantradnya (A Passionate Technologist)' written by Achyut Godbole and Atul Kahate. It's a brief biography of Steve Jobs - about his passion, life, attitude, innovations, revolutions and dreams.The authors have referred to some of the books including 'Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography' by Walter Isaacson for writing his biography in brief while touching some important aspects.I would like to mention one incident which I liked the most from this book. While Steve was viewing one printed circuit board of the earlier apple computer, he found that few circuit lines were not as straight as they should have been. So he immediately asked the engineers to change its design for making it perfect. His thinking was - 'Internal design beauty is as important as external design. We should strive for perfection.' From his quotes - 'Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. The iMac is not just the color or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays together.'Really a lot of things to learn from him ! Hats off to you Steve !

I read this information about Indian coins in one Consumer magazine.Indian coins are mainly produced in four cities:- Delhi,Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. The production in city puts an identification mark under the year of issue. Coins produced in:1. Delhi - have a dot2. Mumbai - have a diamond3. Hyderabad - have a star4. Kolkata - nothing beneath the year.http://www.oceanofweb.com/interesting/facts-indian-coins.html